look, nobody -- we just went through a campaign in which medicare, the ryan budget, and changes to medicare and cuts out of medicare were such a huge issue, both sides claiming that they wanted to protect seniors. but, look, i think the democrats believe that they have an opportunity, they have leverage on the tax issue, that they don't want to talk about these entitlement changes until the republicans agree to increase the tax rate on the top 2%. because after all, there was a bill that passed out of the senate and they believe that at the end of the day, if that bill is still on the plate, on the republicans' plate in the house, they'll have to pass it staring down the fiscal cliff. >> but here's the thing. both sides acknowledge that you're not going to get a deal done without some sort of change to entitlements. specifically medicare. >> well, i'm not so sure what that means when you say it's some sort of change. some sort of structural change to medicare? i'm not sure that has to be on the table. i do think, though, that we do have to have some spending cuts and the president has ackno